Development

This week we write to you live from AidEx in Brussels. We have travelled to the largest gathering of Aid and Development organisations in Europe to promote VOZ and our philosophy of working with communities to better understand human rights and environmental issues through locally situated knowledge.

We would also like to take this opportunity to welcome our new users in Honduras, El Salvador and Australia, we are very much looking forward to working with you.

Last week we showed you how to get better connected with VOZ, this week we explain how we are building our networks.

We believe that one of our most important jobs at VOZ is to make sure that the reports added to the map are seen. Last week we showed you how you can connect, and that we currently reach up to 30,000 people per week, but we don’t think that is enough, which is why we will be working hard to promote VOZ through our partners and events.

Following last weeks worldwide launch we want to help you get better connected with VOZ.

VOZ is all about connecting knowledge, helping communities, grassroots movements, activists and NGOs to be able to better share information about human rights and environmental issues. In order to make it possible for as many people to access information from the map as possible we have multiple lines of communication, and in this edition of the newsletter we want to help you make sure you are getting the information you need.

Time to getting mapping: The full VOZ site goes live today!

It is finally here, the day we launch the VOZ social mapping platform officially and world wide. We are really happy with how the Beta phase has gone over the last 5 weeks, we have been able to iron out lots of little bugs and have added loads of great new features, and now it is ready for the whole world to use.

The fact is that websites such as YouTube or Google do not know your password, and nor do we at VOZ. This not only helps to keep your account safe from hackers, but also means no-one within the organisation can steal your password. In this easy to follow video computer expert Tom Scott explains how websites should store passwords to keep them safe.

It’s the 1st September, and the day we planned our full public launch…. but that isn’t happening today, with good reason… find out below.

VOZ Launch Delayed

Today was the day we wanted to officially tell the world about VOZ but we’re postponing our launch until September 8th. Why the delay? Well, behind all the nice looking mapping and online programming, the core of VOZ is just two people.

We are very pleased to announce that VOZ has been short listed for the Digital Creativity for Social Good Award.

The prize – which aims to promote socially-valuable digital projects that address the goals defined by the Council of Europe and Europe 2020 and that demonstrate the potential to create innovative solutions with Internet and Mobile technology – is awarded by the European Youth Award programme.

We know that many of you who are signing up to use the map are fighting difficult battles, and VOZ was designed to allow the easy reporting and mapping of the human rights and environmental abuses associated with activities such as large scale mining, palm oil or fracking.

We also know that many of you are doing great work, and we want you to be able to tell people about your successes and strategies that work.

We are excited to announce that you can now download the VOZ quicker launcher App for Android. The app, which can downloaded with the link below, helps you to launch VOZ much quicker, and straight from your phone or tablets home screen. No more searching for our website in the heat of a protest or while trying to snap a photo of environmental abuses.

About

VOZ is a free multi-platform participatory mapping app that allows campaigners, activists and social movements to quickly and easily post live reports of human rights and environmental abuses occurring in their local area.

VOZ creates a database of geographically located reports, helping to share experience and knowledge, creating global connections between movements and providing up to the minute, locally produced information for national and international NGOs.